I got called for Jury duty a few years ago, and just about every single case they called me for was for malpractice and I would get into arguments with the lawyers “This is why our health insurance is through the roof because of bottom feeders like you” lol (I really said that) One guys face turned beet red, I thought he was going to clock me “They deserve to be compensated! They deserve to be compensated!” That’s their favorite word “compensated” They never ever say “paid”. These freakin’ John Edwards type slimebags are making more than the doctors! What’s wrong with this picture? Don’t get me wrong, not all doctors are saints and if the doc is really a F-up he should pay, but come on...EVERY case in court is malpractice? WHAT?
I was on a mock jury organized by a manufacturer of a drug, who was being sued by the family of a man who caught the disease (AIDS), and died while taking this drug, which has been quite effective (and profitable) keeping the patients alive. The jury (or 2 or 3, simultaneously, as I recall) was conducted by a marketing firm that did this kind of studies, and included a cross section of citizens from the county where the trial would take place, i.e. those that were expected to be called for jury duty. Microphones in the ceiling, cameras and people on the other side of a two may mirror, actors or attorneys playing both sides of the dispute, and we the jurors. The manufacturer was of course concerned as the medication was a cash cow worldwide, while AIDS patients were still dying, as AIDS patients tend to do.
The victim, (a Mexican immigrant) who was presumably hetero, and whose practices that led to the infection were not discussed, was quite obviously a patient in denial, uneducated, who would not take the drug as prescribed,
did not follow doctor’s orders, etc. Left a grieving widow and children. Nevertheless the family sued, and many on my jury sympathized (grieving widow and children, whose pictures the jury was shown by the actors playing the plaintiff’s attorneys.) After all it was the dreaded greedy Big Pharma. What happened at the actual trial I don’t know, I’d have to check sometime.
The remaining 20 percent are cases that aren't necessarily worth pursuing in court, but have been trumped up and altered so as to get them into court. So basically, it's about 60 percent or so fraud/unnecessary, and 40 percent legitimacy.